In effect the policy set in
place a blockade of Britain and her European allies, to be applied to
belligerent and neutral shipping alike. The German government argued
that such a policy was implemented only as an aggressive form of defence.

Reaction among other
neutrals was similarly one of dismay;
click here to read the
Spanish government's reaction;
click here to read Brazil's
reaction;
click here to read Chile's response.

President Woodrow Wilson's
Address to Congress, 3 February 1917

The Imperial German Government
on the 31st day of January announced to this Government and to the Governments
of the other neutral nations that on and after the 1st day of February, the
present month, it would adopt a policy with regard to the use of submarines
against all shipping seeking to pass through certain designated areas of the
high seas, to which it is clearly my duty to call your attention.

Let me remind the Congress that on the 18th of April last, in view of the
sinking on the 24th of March of the cross-channel steamship Sussex by a German
submarine without summons or warning, and the consequent loss of lives of
several citizens of the United States who were passengers aboard her, this
Government addressed a note to the Imperial German Government, in which it made
the following declaration:

If it is still the purpose of the Imperial German Government to prosecute
relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of
submarines without regard to what the Government of the United States must
consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international law and the
universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States
is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue.

Unless the Imperial Government should now immediately declare and effect an
abandonment of its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and
freight carrying vessels, the Government of the United States can have no choice
but to sever diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether.

In reply to this declaration the Imperial German Government gave this Government
the following assurance:

The German Government is prepared to do its utmost to confine the operations of
war for the rest of its duration to the fighting forces of the belligerents,
thereby also insuring the freedom of the seas, a principle upon which the German
Government believes now, as before, to be in agreement with the Government of
the United States.

The German Government, guided by this idea, notifies the Government of the
United States that the German naval forces have received the following orders:
In accordance with the general principles of visit and search and destruction of
merchant vessels recognized by international law, such vessels, both within and
without the area declared a naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning
and without saving human lives, unless these ships attempt to escape or offer
resistance.

But [it added] neutrals cannot expect that Germany, forced to fight for her
existence, shall, for the sake of neutral interest, restrict the use of an
effective weapon if her enemy is permitted to continue to apply at will methods
of warfare violating the rules of international law.

Such a demand would be
incompatible with the character of neutrality, and the German Government is
convinced that the Government of the United States does not think of making such
a demand, knowing that the Government of the United States has repeatedly
declared that it is determined to restore the principle of the freedom of the
seas, from whatever quarter it has been violated.

To this the Government of the United States replied on the Sth of May,
accepting, of course, the assurance given, but adding:

The Government of the United States feels it necessary to state that it takes
it for granted that the Imperial German Government does not intend to imply that
the maintenance of its newly announced policy is in any way contingent upon the
course or result of diplomatic negotiations between the Government of the United
States and any other belligerent Government, notwithstanding the fact that
certain passages in the Imperial Government's note of the 4th inst. might appear
to be susceptible of that construction.

In order, however, to avoid any
misunderstanding, the Government of the United States notifies the Imperial
Government that it cannot for a moment entertain, much less discuss, a
suggestion that respect by German naval authorities for the rights of citizens
of the United States upon the high seas should in any way or in the slightest
degree be made contingent upon the conduct of any other Government, affecting
the rights of neutrals and non-combatants. Responsibility in such matters is
single, not joint, absolute, not relative.

To this note of the 8th of May the Imperial German Government made no reply.

On the 31st of January, the Wednesday of the present week, the German Ambassador
handed to the Secretary of State, along with a formal note, a memorandum which
contained the following statement:

The Imperial Government therefore does not doubt that the Government of the
United States will understand the situation thus forced upon Germany by the
Entente Allies' brutal methods of war and by their determination to destroy the
Central Powers, and that the Government of the United States will further
realize that the now openly disclosed intention of the Entente Allies gives back
to Germany the freedom of action which she reserved in her note addressed to the
Government of the United States on May 4, 1916.

Under these circumstances, Germany will meet the illegal measures of her
enemies by forcibly preventing, after February 1, 1917, in a zone around Great
Britain, France, Italy and in the Eastern Mediterranean, all navigation, that of
neutrals included, from and to England and from and to France, etc. All ships
met within the zone will be sunk.

I think that you will agree with me that, in view of this declaration, which
suddenly and without prior intimation of any kind deliberately withdraws the
solemn assurance given in the Imperial Government's note of the 4th of May,
1916, this Government has no alternative consistent with the dignity and honour
of the United States but to take the course which, in its note of the 18th of
April, 1916, it announced that it would take in the event that the German
Government did not declare and effect an abandonment of the methods of submarine
warfare which it was then employing and to which it now purposes again to
resort.

I have therefore directed the Secretary of State to announce to his Excellency
the German Ambassador that all diplomatic relations between the United States
and the German Empire are severed and that the American Ambassador to Berlin
will immediately be withdrawn; and, in accordance with this decision, to hand to
his Excellency his passports.

Notwithstanding this unexpected action of the German Government, this sudden and
deplorable renunciation of its assurances, given this Government at one of the
most critical moments of tension in the relations of the two Governments, I
refuse to believe that it is the intention of the German authorities to do in
fact what they have warned us they will feel at liberty to do.

I cannot bring
myself to believe that they will indeed pay no regard to the ancient friendship
between their people and our own or to the solemn obligations which have been
exchanged between them, and destroy American ships, and take the lives of
American citizens in the wilful prosecution of the ruthless naval program they
have announced their intention to adopt. Only actual overt acts on their part
can make me believe it even now.

If this inveterate confidence on my part in the sobriety and prudent foresight
of their purpose should unhappily prove unfounded: if American ships and
American lives should in fact be sacrificed by their naval commanders in
heedless contravention of the just and reasonable understandings of
international law and the obvious dictates of humanity, I shall take the liberty
of coming again before the Congress to ask that authority be given me to use any
means that may be necessary for the protection of our seamen and our people in
the prosecution of their peaceful and legitimate errands on the high seas.

I can
do nothing less. I take it for granted that all neutral Governments will take
the same course.

We do not desire any hostile conflict with the Imperial German Government. We
are the sincere friends of the German people, and earnestly desire to remain at
peace with the Government which speaks for them.

We shall not believe that they
are hostile to us unless and until we are obliged to believe it; and we purpose
nothing more than the reasonable defence of the undoubted rights of our people.

We wish to serve no selfish ends. We seek merely to stand true alike in thought
and in action to the immemorial principles of our people, which I have sought to
express in my address to the Senate only two weeks ago-seek merely to vindicate
our right to liberty and justice and an unmolested life.

These are the bases of
peace, not war. God grant that we may not be challenged to defend them by acts
of wilful injustice on the part of the Government of Germany.